


Old fashioned heroes

by JauntyHako



Category: Fallout (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Shippy only if you squint, post Silver Shroud quest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:51:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5596918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JauntyHako/pseuds/JauntyHako
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Sole Survivor frees Kent from Sinjin, he's hurt and lost faith in heroes. The Sole Survivor helps him through it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old fashioned heroes

Skyler found Kent in the Third Rail, trying to drown his sorrows.

Hancock sent her to find him, although 'sent' was perhaps the wrong word. He watched Kent leave and Skyler heard his heart snap apart like violin strings. With a silent plea in his big dark eyes he sent her off, the unspoken question thick in the air. Kent was Goodneighbor's ray of sunshine and they'd gone and broken him all because they treated it like a game.

Types like the mayor and Skyler did the old running and gunning on a daily basis. Doing it in a costume, as Hancock could well attest to, simply added to the fun. She remembered the radio plays and went along with Kent's fantasies with the same attitude she approached most everything these days, with a shrug and a “why not?”

Donning the hat and coat seemed so natural an addition to her already crazy life that she forgot she still killed people. People who's pals would want retribution. Kent paid the price for her recklessness.

After finding his room in the Memory Den unoccupied she went to the Rail next, figuring that if she lost her faith in all that was good in the world, she'd want some booze. Ham approached her the moment she went through the door.

“You here about Connolly?” he asked. Skyler couldn't tell what he thought about the latest escapades of the Silver Shroud so she simply nodded.

“Thank God. Breezed right past me, didn't even stop to say hi. It's not like him. What the hell happened?”

“Nasty run-in with a raider.” Skyler said and added at Ham's stormy expression: “Don't worry. They're dead.”

“Hope you dragged it out.” he said and let her pass. She descended the stairs to find a small cluster of people around the man she'd been looking for. Magnolia stood to his right one hand on his back, the other pushing a bottle of beer into his hand. She said something but Skyler couldn't make out words among all the others trying to cheer him up. It took some gentle and not so gentle violence to make her way through the crowd and a few sharp words to make them disperse. Kent didn't let on if he welcomed the reprieve. He merely stared at the bar, ignoring Magnolia's urging to smile or at least listen to her.

“Goodneighbor loves you, sweetheart, for bringing a little happiness to us. I always listen to the plays when I get off my shift. Everyone does.” she said.

“They're all laughing at me behind my back. Balmy old Kent with his kids show.”

“That's not true.”

“Of course it is. People out there know superheroes don't exist. Must have been a real laugh, me going on about the Shroud.”

Magnolia shrugged helplessly as she caught Skyler's eyes. From the looks of it she'd been talking to him ever since he came in, no step closer to getting back the man everyone in Goodneigbhbor kept an eye on. Skyler took over for Magnolia who looked at her not unlike Hancock had before returning to the stage.

Please fix him, it seemed to say.

Skyler, who was never very good at fixing things no matter if it was plumbing or lives, nonetheless sat next to Kent and waved for Whitechapel to get her a drink.

“Hey.” she said and watched Kent pick at the label of the bottle. He was worse off than she'd thought. Whitechapel brought her her own beer, some of the ice cold Gwinnett Stout they had brought in over from the hotel. She snapped the bottle cap off and took deep swigs, letting it run ice cold down her throat. Kent watched her from the corners of his eyes, averting his gaze only when she set the bottle back down. His own drink he hadn't touched apart from the label he was slowly peeling off.

“I don't know why I came here.” Kent said, addressing his beer. Skyler stayed quiet, opting to let him talk. “I don't even like alcohol. Beer tastes like Deathclaw pee. I never drank before. My entire life and I was never even tipsy.”

A little pile of paper formed next to him as he pushed the paper flakes together with the side of his finger.

“Good as time as any to start.” Skyler said, watching him build a tiny pyramid. Kent shrugged.

“Tried asking Fred for some Daytripper. He wouldn't even consider it. Told me what I needed was a decent night's rest.” Kent paused, brows furrowed in anger that dissipated as quickly as it had come. Skyler wished he was more one for swearing. Nothing better to get things out of one's system.

“He sells that crap to every run-along junkie but now he suddenly develops a conscience. Figures.”

Skyler tried resting a hand on Kent's shoulder. He shook her off. Hand sinking back into her lap, she wondered how she was supposed to get through to him.

“He's just trying to protect you.” she said softly.

“Everyone does that.” Kent said bitterly, ripping a large chunk off the label and crumpling it up. “Maybe if people didn't try to protect me so much, I'd have gotten smart enough not to antagonise a raider gang for a stupid children's story that nobody cares about.”

Skyler recoiled at his sharp tone. She'd never thought she'd hear him speak like that of the Silver Shroud.

“Kent …”  
“I'm sorry.” he said, softer. “I just don't want anyone trying and cheer me up. After everything that's happened … I guess I need to feel like the idiot I am.”

He brought the beer to his lips and swallowed down a fair amount, nose scrunched up in disgust. He set it down, glaring angrily at the bottle as if it's unpleasant taste was the universe's idea of a joke.

“God, I hate the stuff.” he said.

“You're not an idiot. You're not.” she insisted when Kent huffed. Before she could say another word however, Kent paled. He swayed on his stool, gripped the bar with both hands. She reached out to steady him, thinking the beer had already gotten to him. A dark spot spreading out in his jacket wised her up real fast.  
“Damn, you're bleeding. Whitechapel, help me here.”

Kent didn't answer which worried her enough. She hoisted him up and slung his arm around her shoulder, helping him hobble to the back of the bar, where she'd found MacCready weeks ago. Whitechapel followed her with the bar's med supplies, setting them and some bottle of purified water by the table while she gently lowered Kent down onto the sofa. He groaned and curled in on himself as much as he could. His suit jacket was soaked in blood and Skyler pulled it off quickly, going to work on the shirt underneath. The fabric stuck to the open wound, cotton indistinguishable from flesh. It took almost an entire can of water to free the shirt. Through it all Kent whimpered and cried out softly with every jostle. It annoyed her until she remembered that he didn't have combat training and wasn't equipped to deal with pain the way she or her friends were. After that realisation she made extra sure to be gentle. Instead of making him sit up to divest him of his shirt she cut it open, promising to get him a new one at his protest.

“You should have said something at Hancock's.” Skyler chided with no real force behind her words. With a cleaning rag she dabbed at the wound, mapping it's shape and depth as well as she could in the dingy bar light. A kingdom for a flash light. A moment later she'd have smacked her forehead for being that dense if they weren't full of blood. She turned on her pip-boy's light, the illumination making her work much easier.

“Those are knife wounds.” she said. Bile rose in her throat together with the regret at not having drawn out Sinjin's death a little longer. Kent didn't answer. When she looked up she saw his head slumped on his shoulder, blinking as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

“Rest a bit. I'm almost finished here.”

“'m cold.” Kent murmured. Skyler shucked off her jacket and draped it around Kent's shoulders. She'd always been narrow around the shoulders but it was standard Brotherhood issue and thus big enough to wrap around Kent several times and then some. After closing one of the middle buttons all she could tell was that he was probably somewhere in there. He shuddered and relaxed gradually, nuzzling the warm lining. For all that he appeared to be half-asleep, he did notice her fishing a stimpak out of the medkit.

“I hate needles.” he said, to which Skyler smiled. She didn't particularly like them either.

“You won't feel a thing, I promise. How are you feeling? Hurt anywhere else?”

While Kent listened for any other complains his body had Skyler injected the stimpak quickly and without fuss. He didn't notice a thing and by the time she cleaned the supplies up he'd fallen fast asleep.

 

It took a few sweet words and the promise to take good care of Kent to get Magnolia to tell her where he lived when he wasn't at the Memory Den. The place was a single dingy room, haphazardly fixed with crumbling mortar and tin spread over the roof. In it was a bed, a creaking table with a hot plate and some plastic dinnerware and, at the centre of it all, a fixed up radio with a holotape player. Strewn around it lay various episodes of the Silver Shroud, carefully labelled with Kent's neat handwriting. Silver Shroud memorabilia, some of which she recognised from her own scavenging, cluttered the bed. Freeing a space for Kent to lie in while carrying him was no small feat but eventually Skyler managed, even without waking him up. He slept through getting undressed, shoes and socks first, then unbuttoning his trousers. Skyler sent a brief prayer to anyone willing to listen that he invested in some underwear before she pulled them down and was rewarded with black boxers toting a picture of the Silver Shroud's trademark submachine gun. She wasn't surprised. Weirder things survived the apocalypse. She covered him in moth-eaten blankets and wished she hadn't left the Shroud's costume at Hancock's place. It didn't seem right, strutting around in that thing when it was the source for everything Kent had been through. But the coat was thick and warm and would have made for an excellent additional blanket.

Then there was nothing left to do but sit in the only chair and catch some shut-eye herself. Skyler had long since learned to sleep anywhere and under any circumstances. Sitting up in a secure room within a safe city didn't even rank among her top hundred of uncomfortable sleeping spaces. She dozed off soon after, never falling into a full sleep as she kept one eye on Kent. Weird dreams came and kept her half-conscious mind entertained as the minutes ticked past. Yet when she heard the soft whimpers she was immediately alert.

Kent must have hoped to keep it from her and would have succeeded if she'd slept properly. He muffled his sobs in the sleeve of her jacket, shoulders shaking almost imperceptibly. The chair scraping across the hardwood floor made him flinch. Before he could turn away Skyler was at his side, wordlessly cooping him into her arms and holding tight. It spoke for his exhaustion that he didn't even try to downplay his sorrow. He clutched her back as Skyler cradled his head against her shoulder. He cried in ernest then, wailing cries that were interrupted by shallow breaths. His whole body trembled with the release of stress he'd held in ever since being captured by Sinjin. Skyler stroked his back in wide sweeping patterns, hummed a nonsensical tune into his ear, just loud enough to be heard, but so quiet that it didn't distract him from his grief. Healing started with having a good long cry and Skyler desperately wanted Kent to heal. She rocked him to and fro, breathed deliberate and deep to give him something to hold onto whenever he started hyperventilating. He mimicked her slow inhales without thought but was wracked with tremors on every exhale. All the while Skyler hummed the tune, noticing only after some time that it was the opening theme for the Unstoppables TV series, of which the Shroud was supposed to become a part of in official TV canon after being introduced with some standalone episodes. She wondered if Kent remembered the series or if he, like many others during her time, was one of the radio purists, scoffing at the flashy television universe. Whether Kent recognised the tune or not he calmed down gradually, his heart-wrenching sobs replaced by silent tears, running down his cheeks and collecting in the crook of her shoulder.

“I wish none of this ever happened.” Kent managed to say between gritted teeth. “I wish I'd never met you or told you about the Silver Shroud.”

“I know.” Skyler said. “I know.”

There wasn't more to say and Kent seemed to appreciate her silence. He'd stopped crying almost completely and was once again overtaken by boneless exhaustion. When Skyler made to pull away though she found him still firmly latched onto her.

“Don't leave me alone. Please.” Kent said. Even her muttered assurances that she'd stay close by didn't persuade him into letting go. Eventually she gave up and slipped into bed with him, pulling the blankets over them both and holding him close while he drifted off into sleep once more.

He woke another two times during that night, startled by a nightmare or a gunshot ringing outside. Both times Skyler was there, hugging him close and humming that tune until he fell asleep.

Thus, early morning had them both worn out and unwilling to do much of anything. Skyler waited for Kent to wake up to disentangle herself from him, promising she'd be back in a second. Scouring the few supplies he had at his home she heated up some pork 'n' beans for them both, returning to bed with the steaming cans and two forks in hand. They ate in silence but it was no longer the tense and pained quiet of the evening before. Kent wasn't smiling, but no longer riddled with the physical pain and having gotten a decent amount of the mental one out the night before, he was a good deal more relaxed. She made sure he finished his can of breakfast, making a note to keep an eye on his eating habits whenever she was in town. Cooped up in the memory den all the time made him miss more than one meal, as evidenced by the outline of his ribs she followed with the tips of her fingers when she'd finished her own meal.

“Thank you for being here.” Kent said after a while. He hadn't once questioned their physical proximity, but she could feel his apprehension. Every moment he expected her to get up and leave.

“Always. I'll stay a bit longer, if that's alright with you.”  
“Why?” Kent asked and added hastily: “Not that I mind. I don't. Just …”  
“I want to take care of you.”

“Oh.”

Thusly reassured that Skyler would be going nowhere soon, the tension in his shoulders seeped away. It was only then that she realised how much he needed this. Most of Goodneighbor held Kent dear but despite that he didn't have many friends. All the people he'd been close to died when the bombs fell. His memories were the only thing left and now they were tinged with torture and the cruel reality of the Wasteland. She'd be damned if that was all she'd allow him to associate the Shroud with.

“Remember when I told you that my family used to listen to the radio plays when they first aired?” she asked. Kent shrugged half-heartedly. Taking it as permission to keep speaking, Skyler continued: “My husband wasn't really into superheroes. But my parents and siblings were. I'd come over every Tuesday for dinner and after we'd sit all cuddled together on the sofa, listening to the Shroud. My little brother was almost as big a fan as you are. He'd sit there and didn't notice anything around him anymore. We used to tease him about it but truth was we were all like him. Even when Nate and I were drafted we kept listening. Anchorage Front Lines received the Shroud. Whole batallion listened to every new episode. Even Captain Maxson sat with us grunts. He must have been close to fifty back when but he'd just light up like a kid on christmas when the show came on. When he was reassigned to West Tek we gave him all the plays we'd recorded as a gift. I swear, I'd never seen the man shed a tear before.”

Skyler smiled to herself at the memory. Most of the soldiers in Anchorage had been young, often only turned seventeen before deployed to the frontlines. Among the many resources the US squandered, soldiers were one of them. Veterans like Skyler and Maxson were in short supply and they inevitably got dragged along the hype around the Silver Shroud. She'd always listened to the plays but it was only during her time in the army that the stories really stuck to her.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Kent asked, sounding anguished when that was the last thing Skyler wanted. She placed a kiss on the top of his head.

“Because Anchorage was hell. And after we were deployed to Canada and the US. We shot our own people for wanting food and water. And through everything what kept most people going were their memories of home. We wanted a superhero, someone to bring justice back to the world. We dreamed, hoped. You've never been in the military, so you wouldn't know, but the Silver Shroud was important. Nothing could compare. And the thing is, Kent, after I woke up, two hundred years in the future, I thought no one would even remember. Everything was destroyed and in this crapsack world, who would even care? And then I met you. And you remembered, cared enough to remember. Out of all the things to take from the Old World you chose something that brought people together and made them happy, gave them a little bit of hope that maybe tomorrow wouldn't be as bad as yesterday. The Shroud survived two hundred years because of you. There are maybe a handful of people who can remember the pain and horror of the Old World battlefields. That faded away but the Shroud didn't.”

Skyler paused and cupped Kent's cheek in her hands, tilting his head back gently so he had to look at her.

“It will be like that again. What happened with Sinjin will fade, you'll heal. But unless you choose to keep him alive, the Silver Shroud will die together with that pain.”

Kent didn't say anything but he didn't need to. She saw him think about what she said and for now that was enough. Skyler let the matter rest, snuggled deeper into the blankets and started thinking about all the nice things she could do to make Kent smile again.

 

 


End file.
